Chapter Twenty-Nine

A steaming shower, some clean clothes, a coffee and two slices of toast later, Lisa knew she couldn’t keep avoiding her phone. Before turning it on silent and discarding it to shower she had heard it ring and beep with messages. Pouring herself another coffee, she picked it up and curled herself into her mum’s wicker chair in the conservatory. There was something about looking out into the garden that made it easier to think, and sometimes easier to breathe. Nathan had phoned and left a message. Lisa pressed play:

‘Wow, you’ve run out on me … again!’

He seemed to be laughing, but the words stung. She hadn’t stopped to think about how it would look to him when she decided to leave the flat.

‘I thought last night was fun … good,’ he corrected. ‘Lisa, I … I would have made you breakfast. Call me.’

Lisa felt bad; breakfast, that would have been nice. It had been a long time since anyone had made her breakfast, breakfast and … Lisa reminded herself to focus. Looking out towards her mum’s weeping willow she growled in frustration. The evening before she had enjoyed herself, felt more like her old self than she had for a long time and, as much as not knowing what it all meant scared her, hanging around to find out might have been preferable to an early morning flit. For about the fiftieth time since leaving Nathan’s flat she wished she had never seen the stupid message on his phone. In the shower, trying to focus beyond the smell of Nathan’s aftershave on her skin, she had pondered her options and realised they were limited. Each scenario she thought of carried an unfavourable outcome.

She knew the easiest thing to do would be to simply ask Nathan what it meant and why he had lied about knowing Pete; however, in order to do that she would have to confess to nosing at his phone. It had been an ‘accident’, but still, nobody ever took kindly to having their private messages read, did they? She didn’t like the fact Nathan was hiding something, but she also didn’t want him to think badly of her; at least no more than he probably already did after she had spent the night in his bed and then left without explanation; oh Lord!

Of course she could confront Pete, but Lisa knew she was on precarious ground with him and didn’t want to make it sound like she was accusing him of something, like keeping secrets and lying to his wife. It could all be innocent – hmmm, as husband’s lying to their wives often is – and then she would never be able to repair any damage done by making erroneous accusations.

And, finally, she could tell Flick. She could just slip it into conversation. ‘You’ll never guess what, after the most amazing night with Nathan Baker, I saw a message from your Pete on his phone implying they were both hiding something from you.’ Lisa cringed. It wouldn’t have been an easy conversation if they’d remained solid friends over the years, let alone the fact they had not long rekindled their broken friendship. She’ll shoot the messenger, Lisa thought, realising that was exactly the kind of thing Winnie would say. If only she could ask Winnie what to do. But it would most certainly be overstepping the client-customer boundary that was, after all, the foundation of their relationship.

Expecting her texts to be from Nathan too, Lisa was surprised to see they were from Flick. Then it dawned on her that she would be after the gossip. She would want to know all about the evening before, and the details; oh, the details! An image of herself and Nathan entwined in front of the fire, so fresh she could still feel the effect on her body, flooded her thoughts. Lisa forced herself to refocus.

Pressing to read the first of Flick’s texts she did a double take.

If you are not tied up ;-0 come and save us. Melissa and I are on safari!

Lisa didn’t know what the cryptic message meant, confused, she scrolled to the next:

Sainsbury’s road. Turn in at the elephant. You can’t miss us. We neeeeeeed you!

Lisa knew she should go. She couldn’t let Felicity down if she needed her, but she also wasn’t sure what to do or say about the message. Deciding to tackle one issue at a time she sent Nathan a message:

Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you – and talk about seeing what was on your phone. I wasn’t running out on you. Last night was – mind blowing, pretty damn amazing … confusing – fun. We must catch up again.

Lisa wondered if that made her sound too casual, which really she wasn’t. She had never been good at one-night stands, let alone mind-blowing one-night stands with a history! When she had first left home, Lisa had thought one-night stands might be the way to forget Nathan Baker, but she quickly learned they weren’t. They just reminded her of how much she missed him.

Lisa glanced down at her text. Hoping to make it sound less casual she added, Soon x. She pressed send and then panicked that the ‘Soon x’ might make her seem clingy or needy. While she pondered it, her phone buzzed with a response:

Cool

Cool! Who says cool? And what the hell does cool mean? Cool was the antithesis of how she felt; the distinct opposite of how she would sum things up after their intensely hot, thoroughly erotic night in front of the glowing embers of the fire. Feeling completely discombobulated, Lisa decided talking things through with Felicity and Melissa might be just what she needed. And while she didn’t know what to say to Felicity about Pete’s obscure text, she knew seeing her would give her an opportunity to sound things out, and see if she opened up to her again like she had the night she fell asleep on her. She fired off a text telling Flick she was on her way and headed out to her van.